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Mary Flanagan, caught between her sense of religion and obligation on one hand and her very human desire for love and life on the other, is in emotional limbo. When she meets Arnie Berger, who becomes both her lover and philosophic guide, Mary's world seems to be transformed. Changes also come for Mary's children, who have been trapped in their own dilemmas. Sean, a quadriplegic, is looking for a fulfilled life. Mary's daughter, Kathleen must cope with infertility and anger in her search for happiness. The lives of all three Flanagans are turned upside down by happiness and tragedy.

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Editorial Reviews

About the Author

A New Englander by upbringing and inclination, Kenneth Weene's career - primarily in New York - included teaching, pastoral care, and psychology. Throughout his career Kenneth has also been devoted to writing. His poetry has appeared in a number of publications - both print and web. He authored a number of professional publications. His short stories and essays have also been published. One of his short plays was recently workshopped. An anthology of Kenneth's work, Songs For My Father, was published 2002. Kenneth and his wife, Roz, now live in greater Phoenix where he spends much of his time writing.

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A well-written book that fascinated me from the start. Maybe it was the traditional Irish family background or Catholic rigidness of life that I know so well that drew me in. The main female character is MaryFlanagan, who had to deal with her share of tragedy when her son get badly injured and paralyzed in Vietnam and her husband dies too early. Her faith gives her comfort. But when her quadriplegic son moves out all bets are off and she does one unexpected thing after another. Her life really seemed to begin only then. I was so happy for her that she found happiness with a new man who was her total opposite, an atheist, and wondered what the rest of the book was going to be about. More unexpected obstacles and changes that kept me hooked. Read for yourself.

This novel encompasses the life of a Roman Catholic woman, born in Ireland, desiring to enter the convent and whose only ambition is to see God, but instead as a teenager is sent by her father to the U.S. to help his brother in his store. She is treated like slave labor, but is introduced to a good Irish Catholic man, who is seeking an Irish Catholic wife, and in order free herself from the store, she marries Sean Flanagan. Sean Flanagan has been raised by a father as hard as nails so Sean has no understanding of sharing a life and obviously a virgin, introduces his wife Mary to the marital bed with no finesse nor love. But Mary is not disappointed for she has been thoroughly indoctrinated to believe that sex is only for procreation and she is to be subservient to her husband's desires except during menstrual times and pregnancy.

She first has a son, Sean Jr., and then a daughter, Kathleen, after which medically she should have no more children. Consequently, no more sex, which Sean Sr. accepts, but it changes him. In time Sean Sr. is killed in an accident; her son, Sean Jr., suffers injury in the Viet Nam war and returns home a quadriplegic. After a time he is released from the VA hospital to return home into Mary's care. Her daughter Kathleen loses a baby, can have no more children and her husband, John, abandons her.

In every moment of Mary's life, she relies on God and her faith to see her through, which gives her a martyr's strength that undermines her own resilience. She instills this sense of martyrdom into her son, Sean, and also into Kathleen, who wants to remarry, and perhaps adopt a child, but Mary lays it heavy on her that she is married for life and as a result Kathleen joins a Catholic hospice, lives there and settles for that.

Eventually Sean Jr. decides to enter a VA hospital for rehabilitation to teach him to utilize what little independent faculties he has and there he finds happiness with one of the female helpers. At this time, Mary is wallowing in self-pity because of how life has imprisoned her in nothing but disappointment. As the story says, "Mary wore a hair shirt of the Church."

Eventually Mary decides to educate herself, which opens a whole new world to her, apart from the Church. She is intelligent and eventually gives up going to Mass and enters a Presbyterian Church with a female minister who answers Mary's question with the principles of God's and Christ's love. Through the balance of the story, Mary is offered love, life, new opportunities, but falls back into her martyrdom when a member of her family suffers an event, for which Mary is not responsible.

The story has a rather surprising ending if the reader is expecting the usual happy one, but in real life, this could very well occur to one like Mary with such a background.

The author does a nice job of character building and for a male, certainly understands the nature of females. There were a couple of aspects that puzzled me. If Sean Jr. was in the Vietnam War, and at the youngest he would have been was 18 and that war ended in 1973, which would have put him in 2011 at age 56 and Mary about 74 now and the story is written in the present tense, it would be nice if somewhere in the tale there is a year designated so the reader can visualize Mary's age as she faces her challenges.

I enjoyed this story and would recommend it for those readers who enjoy character studies more than action tales.

Ken Weene's novel, Widow's Walk, develops on its own momentum, and for me speaks as a story that pulls me into it even more fully than his previous book, Memoirs from the Asylum. After reading some of the reviews here, there is little that I can add to a description of the plot. I do, however, see another theme here, that of relationships. And Mary Flanagan's strong friendship with Mrs. Callaghan, the woman who keeps the boarding house where Mary lives is a major strength of the story that unfolds. She becomes the contra-voice as in a musical piece, responding to Mary's dilemmas over her relationship with Arnie her lover, Sean her son injured in Vietnam, Kathleen her daughter emotionally scarred yet a blessing to others in the Catholic hospice, and the more distant relationships with other characters in the novel. The story moves along at a mild pace with many heart-warming scenes, so many in fact that I was waiting for the catastrophic events that surely would follow, after being lured into a feel-good mood of the story. And indeed, the very difficult and emotional events that seem to gather into stormy categories does follow, pulling me as a reader into them with a gasp. The skill of luring the reader into a page-turner of tragedy and joy shows Weene's ability to handle plot and action, after developing his characters fully enough that they almost walk off the page before I grabbed them and forced them back into the story. This book is worth a place on one's book shelf or e-shelf, where it remains available to return to time and time again.

In Kenneth Weene's new book, "Widow's Walk," we are introduced to Mary Riley Flanagan. Mary's life revolves around being a loyal wife, devoted mother, devout member of The Catholic Church, thinking only of her husband and children's needs with little regard for herself.

Mr. Weene truly brings Mary to life in such a creative way that you can feel her pain! Her husband has died and her children left home. There is no one to fuss over. She is alone at age 63. But Mr. Weene has plans for Mary! A new man, Professor Arnie Berger, is waiting in her future!

Is it possible for a religious Catholic widow and a non-practicing Jewish divorced man to make a life together? YOU MUST READ THIS BOOK. DO NOT PUT IT DOWN. KEEP SOME TISSUES NEARBY AND PRAY FOR MARY!

I am very proud to own this book. I purchased it through my college's textbook company. I keep it in a special place on my bookshelf so I will never forget all about Mary!

Sincerely,Irene BrodskyFaculty Member of Brooklyn College, City University of New YorkAdult Education ProgramandAuthor of "Poetry Unplugged"(Outskirts Press.2008)